Monday, December 03, 2012

We had chicken and dumplings for dinner tonight. That's great comfort food. We had a sort of chilly day here, a bit cloudy, and we were very busy. Seemed like a good day for comfort food.

Here's where you'd think I would put in a lovely picture of our finished dish. Unfortunately, I had a camera malfunction. I did manage to get this shot of one of the ingredients:

Scorpion peppers. OK, probably not the first thing you think of when you are thinking comfort food. Since they are 20 times hotter than habaneros. That's a pile of hot. I like some heat, and added one to our chicken and dumplings. And it was lovely! I put it in fairly early in the process, which allowed a lot of the heat to dissipate.

Anyway, in case you'd like the recipe... without pictures... (and I don't even have leftovers to recreate the dish for a photo...) here you go:

Chicken and Dumplings

IngredientsChicken:

1 (2 1/2-pound) chicken, cut into 8 pieces

2 quarts chicken broth

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or a scorpion if you are daring!)

1 1/2 cups frozen corn

1 1/2 cups frozen peas

Dumplings:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

Ice water

Directions:
To start the chicken: brown the chicken pieces in a large pot. Add the chicken broth and cayenne, and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Simmer the chicken until it is tender and the thigh juices run clear, about 40 minutes. Remove the chicken from the pot and, when it is cool enough to handle, remove the skin and separate the meat from the bones. Return the chicken meat to the pot. Keep warm over low heat.

To prepare the dumplings: Mix the flour with the salt and mound together in a mixing bowl. Beginning at the center of the mound, drizzle a small amount of ice water over the flour. Using your fingers, and moving from the center to the sides of the bowl, gradually incorporate about 3/4 cup of ice water. Knead the dough and form it into ball.

Drop the dough into the chicken by spoonfuls. Do not stir the chicken once the dumplings have been added. Cook uncovered for about 10 minutes, then cover and cook for 10 more minutes.

Carefully remove the dumplings from the pot and put into bowls. Add the frozen corn and peas to the pot and stir, simmering until the vegetables are cooked, about 3 minutes. Ladle over the dumplings and serve!